Rarely, if ever, will a district's budget specify improvements to its buildings' faculty lounges. This presents your association with an opportunity to organize your members to help them spruce up their surroundings.

Be creative and have fun! How about asking members to lend their hand to painting? How about encouraging members to donate gently-used furniture when they update their living rooms? It's not uncommon for some locals to see members donating used computer equipment for members' use in the lounges. Your local association can make this happen by getting the word out to members that such donations would be welcome and improve members' surroundings when they are seeking a little downtime during the day. Don't forget to recognize members that help.

Locals are reporting success in getting members together for trips to the ballpark. Professional basketball, football, hockey, and/or soccer games would be fun, too!

Your local could organize the trip and purchase seats together for members. It never hurts to let the ticket office know that your bringing down a group of teachers and ESPs to the game -- you may get special recognition during the game and even discount tickets! Who knows -- wouldn't it be fun if a retiring member with decades of experience got to throw out the first pitch or be on the field during the national anthem? Again -- it never hurts to ask!

Consider outfitting your members in association apparel for the trip. You could even charter a bus for your members.

Of course, encourage your members to bring their friends and family to the event! Have fun!

This one goes with #58: "Invite retired or veteran members to share inspiring stories with members!" We came up with this idea because oftentimes new members will confuse the many benefits that come with their work as gifts from the board of education when, in fact, most things in any association contract had to be fought for.

Try making a list of ten to twelve great reasons to work in your district. These could include prep time, common planning periods, members' input in textbook selection and curriculum writing, etc. Next to each write a short paragraph on where the benefit came from and how it was established. Do a little research -- check out some older contracts and talk to your veteran and retired members. You'll be surprised just how many of the great things about your district started as ideas from members. Promote this to your members to show how your local has had a great deal of influence on the education practices of your district and continues to be a source of great ideas on student achievement.

Consider establishing a fund for members in need. When members' relatives pass away or members become sick or injured, this fund could purchase flowers and messages of support that offer a ray of sunshine in a time of need. These showings of support can be sent from the local association on behalf of all members.

This type of fund is bound by different rules and may not covered by association dues. For information on setting up such a fund, reach out to your NJEA UniServ field representative.

Don't neglect long-term substitute teachers who may not be paying association dues. Also consider including student teachers in your activities and events. Although each does not have voting rights in your local, inviting them to PRIDE events, social functions, and legislative lobbying actions would make them feel like part of your association family and may help to forge relationships when these employees become full-time members later on down the road.

It's not uncommon for faculty meetings to take the form of one administrator speaking before the staff and offering updates, suggestions, advice, etc. If this is true in your district, consider sharing your ideas that would make your faculty meetings a little more interactive and fun.

One such idea that some locals have instituted involves administration giving time to members so that they may share best practices with students. If you know of a member who is doing some particularly innovating things in the classroom, how about asking administration to give him or her five minutes or so at the next faculty meeting to share? This could become a regular feature at your faculty meetings that members would appreciate. As an association leader, you could be your members voice in making them stand out, which leads to the member feeling valued by the school community.

You might be surprised by just how many of your members graduated from your district's schools. Why not promote this with not only your members but also the community?

Consider surveying your members and ask them if they graduated from your local's schools and, if so, what year? You could do a nice "Then and Now" flier showing your members pictures today compared with their senior year portraits. Promote this on a flier with the full name of your local association along with a tagline to the effect of, "Many of us went to our schools. We came back to teach because we believe in our district and our students!"

PRIDE funding is available for such an initiative (i.e. printing fliers). You may even get funding for a billboard in the community!

For more information about how PRIDE could pay for this and other community involvement projects, reach out to your NJEA UniServ field representative.

88. Work with your veteran members to put together a "welcome manual" for your new members!

This suggestion just came to us today from a member of our Communications staff.

How about asking all your members one question, "what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started here?" Encourage your members to respond in three sentences or less. Then, collect the responses and organize them into a "welcome manual" (or similarly titled piece) for your new members! Your new members will benefit from the advice!

NinJEA is a program for less active members of the association to gain awareness of association activities on the state, county, and local level.

It was created by the Sparks class of 2013 and has been implemented in one local so far. What follows below is the local's implementation plan. The local believes that NinJEA has been successful and plans to continue it next year.

I met a local leader who does this for her members; it's a lot like the NinJEA idea. She calls it "Concentration Contract!"

Once every couple weeks, this local leader picks out one or two important articles in the contract and summarizes them in writing for her members. Then she distributes them to her members' via school mailboxes. The Concentration Contract pieces are super short -- maybe only a sentence or two.

The local leader says she's been impressed with members' reactions to the program. Try it!